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Charlie Parker
Charles "Charlie" Parker, Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), also known as "Yardbird" and "Bird", was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.1 Parker was a highly influential jazz soloist and a leading figure in the development of bebop,2 a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique and improvisation. Parker introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions. His tone ranged from clean and penetrating to sweet and somber. Parker acquired the nickname "Yardbird" early in his career.3 This and its shortened form, "Bird" continued to be used for the rest of his life, inspiring the titles of a number of Parker compositions, such as "Yardbird Suite", "Ornithology", "Bird Gets the Worm", and "Bird of Paradise." Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat Generation, personifying the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual rather than just an entertainer.4 Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Childhood 1.2 Early career 1.3 New York City 1.4 Bebop 1.5 Addiction 1.6 Charlie Parker with Strings 1.7 Jazz at Massey Hall 1.8 Death 2 Music 3 Discography 4 Sessionography 5 Awards and recognitions 6 Musical tributes 7 Charlie Parker Residence 8 Other tributes 9 Notes 10 References 11 External links Biography Childhood Charles Parker, Jr. was born in Kansas City, Kansas, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, the only child of Adelaide "Addie" (Bailey) and Charles Parker.5 He attended Lincoln High School6 in September 1934, but withdrew in December 1935, just before joining the local musicians' union.why? Parker began playing the saxophone at age 11, and at age 14 he joined his school's band using a rented school instrument. His father, Charles, was often absent but provided some musical influence; he was a pianist, dancer and singer on the T.O.B.A. circuit. He later became a Pullman waiter or chef on the railways. Parker's mother Addie worked nights at the local Western Union office. His biggest influence at that time was a young trombone player who taught him the basics of improvisation.needed Early career In the late 1930s Parker began to practice diligently. During this period he mastered improvisation and developed some of the ideas that led to bebop. In an interview with Paul Desmond, he said that he spent three to four years practicing up to 15 hours a day.7 Bands led by Count Basie and Bennie Moten certainly influenced Parker. He played with local bands in jazz clubs around Kansas City, Missouri, where he perfected his technique, with the assistance of Buster Smith, whose dynamic transitions to double and triple time influenced Parker's developing style. In 1938, Parker joined pianist Jay McShann's territory band.8 The band toured nightclubs and other venues of the southwest, as well as Chicago and New York City.910 Parker made his professional recording debut with McShann's band. As a teenager, Parker developed a morphine addiction while hospitalized after an automobile accident, and subsequently became addicted to heroin. He continued using heroin throughout his life, and it ultimately contributed to his death.needed New York City In 1939 Parker moved to New York City, to pursue a career in music. He held several other jobs as well. He worked for nine dollars a week as a dishwasher at Jimmie's Chicken Shack, where pianist Art Tatum performed.11 In 1942 Parker left McShann's band and played for one year with Earl Hines, whose band included Dizzy Gillespie, who later played with Parker as a duo. Unfortunately, this period is virtually undocumented, due to the strike of 1942–1943 by the American Federation of Musicians, during which time few professional recordings were made. Parker joined a group of young musicians, and played in after-hours clubs in Harlem, such as Clark Monroe's Uptown House and Minton's Playhouse. These young iconoclasts included Gillespie, pianist Thelonious Monk, guitarist Charlie Christian, and drummer Kenny Clarke. The beboppers' attitude was summed up in a famous quotation attributed to Monk by Mary Lou Williams: "We wanted a music that they couldn't play"12 – "they" referring to white bandleaders who had usurped and profited from swing music.needed The group played in venues on 52nd Street, including Three Deuces and the Onyx. While in New York City, Parker studied with his music teacher, Maury Deutsch.needed Bebop According to an interview Parker gave in the 1950s, one night in 1939 he was playing "Cherokee" in a jam session with guitarist William "Biddy" Fleet when he hit upon a method for developing his solos that enabled one of his main musical innovations. He realized that the 12 semitones of the chromatic scale can lead melodically to any key, breaking some of the confines of simpler jazz soloing. Early in its development, this new type of jazz was rejected by many of the established, traditional jazz musicians who disdained their younger counterparts. The beboppers responded by calling these traditionalists "moldy figs". However, some musicians, such as Coleman Hawkins and Tatum, were more positive about its development, and participated in jam sessions and recording dates in the new approach with its adherents. Because of the two-year Musicians' Union ban of all commercial recordings from 1942 to 1944, much of bebop's early development was not captured for posterity. As a result, it gained limited radio exposure. Bebop musicians had a difficult time gaining widespread recognition. It was not until 1945, when the recording ban was lifted, that Parker's collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Bud Powell and others had a substantial effect on the jazz world. (One of their first small-group performances together was rediscovered and issued in 2005: a concert in New York's Town Hall on June 22, 1945.) Bebop soon gained wider appeal among musicians and fans alike. On November 26, 1945, Parker led a record date for the Savoy label, marketed as the "greatest Jazz session ever." Recording as Charlie Parker's Reboppers, Parker enlisted such sidemen as Gillespie and Miles Davis on trumpet, Curly Russell on bass and Roach on drums. The tracks recorded during this session include "Ko-Ko", "Billie's Bounce" and Now's the Time". Shortly afterward, the Parker/Gillespie band traveled to an unsuccessful engagement at Billy Berg's club in Los Angeles. Most of the group returned to New York, but Parker remained in California, cashing in his return ticket to buy heroin. He experienced great hardship in California, eventually being committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital for a six-month period. Addiction Parker's addiction to heroin caused him to miss gigs and be considered unemployable. He frequently resorted to busking, receiving loans from fellow musicians and admirers, and pawning his saxophones for drug money. Heroin use was rampant in the jazz scene, and users could acquire it with little difficulty. Although he produced many brilliant recordings during this period, Parker's behavior became increasingly erratic. Heroin was difficult to obtain once he moved to California, where the drug was less abundant, so he used alcohol as a substitute. A recording for the Dial label from July 29, 1946, provides evidence of his condition. Before this session, Parker drank a quart of whiskey. According to the liner notes of Charlie Parker on Dial Volume 1, Parker missed most of the first two bars of his first chorus on the track, "Max Making Wax". When he finally did come in, he swayed wildly and once spun all the way around, away from his microphone. On the next tune, "Lover Man", producer Ross Russell physically supported Parker. On "Bebop" (the final track Parker recorded that evening) he begins a solo with a solid first eight bars; on his second eight bars, however, he begins to struggle, and a desperate Howard McGhee, the trumpeter on this session, shouts, "Blow!" at him. Charles Mingus considered this version of "Lover Man" to be among Parker's greatest recordings, despite its flaws.13 Nevertheless, Parker hated the recording and never forgave Ross Russell for releasing it. He re-recorded the tune in 1951 for Verve. When Parker received his discharge from the hospital, he was clean and healthy. Before leaving California, he recorded "Relaxin' at Camarillo" in reference to his hospital stay. He returned to New York, resumed his addiction to heroin and recorded dozens of sides for the Savoy and Dial labels, which remain some of the high points of his recorded output. Many of these were with his so-called "classic quintet" including Davis and Roach.needed Charlie Parker with Strings A longstanding desire of Parker's was to perform with a string section. He was a keen student of classical music, and contemporaries reported he was most interested in the music and formal innovations of Igor Stravinsky and longed to engage in a project akin to what later became known as Third Stream, a new kind of music, incorporating both jazz and classical elements as opposed to merely incorporating a string section into performance of jazz standards. On November 30, 1949, Norman Granz arranged for Parker to record an album of ballads with a mixed group of jazz and chamber orchestra musicians.14 Six master takes from this session comprised the album Charlie Parker with Strings: "Just Friends", "Everything Happens to Me", "April in Paris", "Summertime", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", and "If I Should Lose You". Jazz at Massey Hall In 1953, Parker performed at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada, joined by Gillespie, Mingus, Powell and Roach. Unfortunately, the concert happened at the same time as a televised heavyweight boxing match between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott, so the musical event was poorly attended. Mingus recorded the concert, resulting in the album Jazz at Massey Hall. At this concert, Parker played a plastic Grafton saxophone.needed At this point in his career he was experimenting with new sounds and materials. Parker himself explained the purpose of the plastic saxophone in a May 9, 1953 broadcast from Birdland and did so again in a subsequent May 1953 broadcast. Parker is known to have played several saxophones, including the Conn 6M, the Martin Handicraft and Selmer Model 22. He is also known to have performed with a King "Super 20" saxophone. Parker's King Super 20 saxophone was made specially for him in 1947.needed Death Parker's grave at Lincoln Cemetery Parker died on March 12, 1955, in the suite of his friend and patroness Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter at the Stanhope Hotel in New York City, while watching The Dorsey Brothers' Stage Show on television. The official causes of death were lobar pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer, but Parker also had an advanced case of cirrhosis and had suffered a heart attack. The coroner who performed his autopsy mistakenly estimated Parker's 34-year-old body to be between 50 and 60 years of age.15 Since 1950, Parker had been living with Chan Berg, the mother of his son Baird (who lived until 2014)16 and his daughter Pree (who died as an infant of cystic fibrosis). He considered Chan his wife although he never married her, nor did he divorce his previous wife, Doris, whom he had married in 1948. His marital status complicated the settling of Parker's estate and would ultimately serve to frustrate his wish to be quietly interred in New York City. Parker wished never to return to Kansas City, even in death.needed He had told Chan that he wanted to be buried in New York, the city he considered his home. Dizzy Gillespie paid for the funeral arrangements17 and organized a lying-in-state, a Harlem procession officiated by Congressman and Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., as well as a memorial concert. Parker's body was flown back to Missouri, in accordance with his mother's wishes. Parker's widow criticized the dead man's family for giving him a Christian funeral even though they knew he was a confirmed atheist.18 Parker was buried at Lincoln Cemetery in Missouri, in a hamlet known as Blue Summit, located close to I-435 and east Truman road. Parker's estate is managed by CMG Worldwide. Music Parker's style of composition involved interpolation of original melodies over existing jazz forms and standards, a practice known as contrafact and still common in jazz today. Examples include "Ornithology", "How High the Moon", and "Yardbird Suite", the vocal version of which is called "What Price Love", with lyrics by Parker. The practice was not uncommon prior to bebop, but it became a signature of the movement as artists began to move away from arranging popular standards and toward composing their own material. While tunes such as "Now's The Time", "Billie's Bounce", "Au Privave", "Barbados", "Relaxin' at Camarillo", "Bloomdido", and "Cool Blues" were based on conventional 12-bar blues changes, Parker also created a unique version of the 12-bar blues for tunes such as "Blues for Alice", "Laird Baird", and "Si Si." These unique chords are known popularly as "Bird Changes".needed Like his solos, some of his compositions are characterized by long, complex melodic lines and a minimum of repetition although he did employ the use of repetition in some tunes, most notably "Now's The Time". Parker contributed greatly to the modern jazz solo, one in which triplets and pick-up notes were used in unorthodox ways to lead into chord tones, affording the soloist with more freedom to use passing tones, which soloists previously avoided. Parker was admired for his unique style of phrasing and innovative use of rhythm. Via his recordings and the popularity of the posthumously published Charlie Parker Omnibook, Parker's identifiable style dominated jazz for many years to come. Other well-known Parker compositions include "Ah-Leu-Cha", "Anthropology", co-written with Gillespie, "Bird Gets the Worm", "Cheryl", "Confirmation", "Constellation", "Donna Lee", "Moose the Mooche", and "Scrapple from the Apple". Miles Davis once said, "You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker."19 Discography Main article: Charlie Parker discography Sessionography There is a proposal that this section be split into a new article. (Discuss) (March 2015) showDial/Savoy sessions Awards and recognitions "Bird Lives" sculpture by Robert Graham in Kansas City, Missouri Grammy Award Charlie Parker Grammy Award history20 Year Category Title Genre Label Result 1974 Best Performance By A Soloist First Recordings! Jazz Onyx Winner Grammy Hall of Fame Recordings of Charlie Parker were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance." Charlie Parker: Grammy Hall of Fame Awards21 Year recorded Title Genre Label Year inducted 1945 "Billie's Bounce" Jazz (Single) Savoy 2002 1953 Jazz at Massey Hall Jazz (Album) Debut 1995 1946 "Ornithology" Jazz (Single) Dial 1989 1950 Charlie Parker with Strings Jazz (Album) Mercury 1988 Inductions Year inducted Title 2004 Jazz at Lincoln Center: Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame 1984 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award 1979 Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame National Recording Registry In 2002, the Library of Congress honored his recording "Ko-Ko" (1945) by adding it to the National Recording Registry. U.S. Postage Stamp Year issued Stamp USA Note 1995 32 cents Commemorative stamp U.S. Postal Stamps Photo (Scott No. 2987)22 Musical tributes Lennie Tristano's overdubbed solo piano piece "Requiem" was recorded in tribute to Parker shortly after his death. Street musician Moondog wrote his famous "Bird's Lament" in his memory; published on the 1969 album Moondog. Since 1972, the Californian ensemble Supersax harmonized many of Parker's improvisations for a five-piece saxophone section. In 1973, guitarist Joe Pass released his album I Remember Charlie Parker in Parker's honor.23 Weather Report's jazz fusion track and highly acclaimed big band standard "Birdland", from the Heavy Weather album (1977), was a dedication by bandleader Joe Zawinul to both Charlie Parker and the New York 52nd Street club itself. The biographical song "Parker's Band" was recorded by Steely Dan on its 1974 album Pretzel Logic. The avant-garde trombonist George Lewis recorded Homage to Charles Parker (1979). The opera Charlie Parker's Yardbird by Daniel Schnyder (de), libretto by Bridgette A. Wimberly, was premiered by Opera Philadelphia on June 5, 2015, with Lawrence Brownlee in the title role.24 Charlie Parker Residence U.S. National Register of Historic Places NYC Landmark Charlie Parker Residence 151 Avenue B.jpg (2011) Charlie Parker is located in New York City Charlie Parker Location 151 Avenue B Manhattan, New York City Coordinates 40°43′36″N 73°58′50″W Built C. 1849 Architectural style Gothic Revival Governing body Private NRHP Reference # 94000262 Significant dates Added to NRHP April 7, 199426 Designated NRHP April 7, 1994 Designated NYCL May 18, 199925 Charlie Parker Residence From 1950 to 1954, Parker and his common-law wife, Chan Berg, lived in the ground floor of the townhouse at 151 Avenue B, across from Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan's East Village. The Gothic Revival building, which was built c.1849,27 was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994,28 and was designated a New York City landmark in 1999. Avenue B, between East 7th and 10th Streets, was renamed Charlie Parker Place in 1992. Other tributes The 1957 story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin features a jazz/blues playing virtuoso who names Bird as the "greatest" jazz musician, whose style he hopes to emulate. In 1949, the New York night club Birdland was named in his honor. Three years later, George Shearing wrote "Lullaby of Birdland", named for both Parker and the nightclub. A memorial to Parker was dedicated in 1999 in Kansas City at 17th Terrace and The Paseo, near the American Jazz Museum located at 18th and Vine, featuring a 10-foot (3 m) tall bronze head sculpted by Robert Graham. The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is a free two-day music festival that takes place every summer on the last weekend of August in Manhattan, New York City, at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem and Tompkins Square Park in the Lower East Side, sponsored by the non-profit organization City Parks Foundation. The festival marked its 17th anniversary in 2009. In one of his most famous short story collections, Las armas secretas (The Secret Weapons), Julio Cortázar dedicated "El perseguidor" ("The Pursuer") to the memory of Charlie Parker. This piece examines the last days of Johnny, a drug-addict saxophonist, through the eyes of Bruno, his biographer. Some qualify this story as one of Cortázar's masterpieces in the genre. A biographical film called Bird, starring Forest Whitaker as Parker and directed by Clint Eastwood, was released in 1988.29 In 1984, legendary modern dance choreographer Alvin Ailey created the piece For Bird – With Love in honor of Parker. The piece chronicles his life, from his early career to his failing health. In 2005, the Selmer Paris saxophone manufacturer commissioned a special "Tribute to Bird"30 alto saxophone, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Charlie Parker (1955–2005). Parker's performances of "I Remember You" and "Parker's Mood" (recorded for the Savoy label in 1948, with the Charlie Parker All Stars, comprising Parker on alto sax, Miles Davis on trumpet, John Lewis on piano, Curley Russell on bass, and Max Roach on drums) were selected by Harold Bloom for inclusion on his shortlist of the "twentieth-century American Sublime", the greatest works of American art produced in the 20th century. A vocalese version of "Parker's Mood" was a popular success for King Pleasure. Jean-Michel Basquiat created many pieces to honour Charlie Parker, including Charles the First, CPRKR and Discography I. Charlie Watts, drummer for the Rolling Stones, wrote a children's book entitled Ode to a High Flying Bird as a tribute to Parker. Watts has cited Parker as a major influence in his life as a youth learning to play jazz. Notes 1.Jump up ^ "Charlie Parker Biography – Facts, Birthday, Life Story". Biography.com. Retrieved 2014-02-17. 2.Jump up ^ "Charlie Parker". The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 3.Jump up ^ "Yardbird". Birdlives.co.uk. Retrieved December 19, 2013. 4.Jump up ^ The 1959 Beat parody album How to Speak Hip lists the three top most "uncool" actions (both in the audio and in the liner notes) as follows: "It is uncool to claim that you used to room with Bird. It is uncool to claim that you have Bird's axe. It is even less cool to ask 'Who is Bird?'" 5.Jump up ^ 1 6.Jump up ^ Woideck, Carl (October 1998). Charlie Parker: His Music and Life. Michigan American Music Series. University of Michigan Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-472-08555-2. "In Lincoln High School he was the pride of his teachers..." 7.Jump up ^ "Paul Desmond interviews Charlie Parker". puredesmond.ca. Retrieved March 1, 2011. 8.Jump up ^ Woideck, Carl (October 1998). Charlie Parker: His Music and Life. Michigan American Music Series. University of Michigan Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-472-08555-2. 9.Jump up ^ "pbs.org". pbs.org. Retrieved March 10, 2011. 10.Jump up ^ amb.cult.bg Archived December 21, 2007 at the Wayback Machine 11.Jump up ^ See Jazz, Episode 7: "Dedicated to Chaos: 1940–1945". 12.Jump up ^ Blakely, Johanna (April 2010). Lessons from Fashion's Free Culture (TEDxUSC 2010). TEDTalks. Retrieved December 3, 2010. 13.Jump up ^ Gitler, Ira (2001). The Masters of Bebop: A Listener's Guide. Da Capo Press. p. 33. ISBN 0-306-81009-3. "Charles Mingus once chose it when asked to name his favorite Parker recordings. 'I like all', he said, 'none more than the other, but I'd have to pick Lover Man for the feeling he had then and his ability to express that feeling.'" 14.Jump up ^ Ross Russell Bird Lives! The High Life & Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker, 1973, New York: Charterhouse, p. 273; ISBN 0-306-80679-7 15.Jump up ^ Reisner, Robert, ed. (1977). Bird: the Legend of Charlie Parker. New York: Da Capo Press. p. 133. 16.Jump up ^ http://www.philly.com/philly/obituaries/20140330_Charles_Baird_Parker__61__son_of_jazz_great.html 17.Jump up ^ "Ken Burns interviews Chan Parker" (PDF). Retrieved March 10, 2011. 18.Jump up ^ Ross Russell (1996). Bird Lives!: The High Life And Hard Times Of Charlie (yardbird) Parker. Da Capo Press. p. 361. ISBN 9780306806797. "A confirmed atheist, he had not been inside a church in years." 19.Jump up ^ Griffin, Farah Jasmine; Washington, Salim (2008). Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. p. 237. 20.Jump up ^ Grammy Awards search engine Archived August 28, 2015 at the Wayback Machine 21.Jump up ^ Grammy Hall of Fame Database Archived July 7, 2015 at the Wayback Machine 22.Jump up ^ Richard Tucker. "Charlie Parker: 32 cents Commemorative stamp". Esperstamps.org. Retrieved March 10, 2011. 23.Jump up ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/i-remember-charlie-parker-mw0000691113 24.Jump up ^ Charlie Parker's Yardbird, performance details 25.Jump up ^ "Charlie Parker Residence Designation Report", New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission 26.Jump up ^ "Parker, Charlie, Residence" on the NRHP database 27.Jump up ^ New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Postal, Matthew A. (ed. and text); Dolkart, Andrew S. (text). (2009) Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.) New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1, p.69 28.Jump up ^ "Charlie Parker: The Charlie Parker Residence, NYC". Charlieparkerresidence.net. Retrieved March 10, 2011. 29.Jump up ^ Bird at the Internet Movie Database 30.Jump up ^ 2 Archived March 30, 2014 at the Wayback Machine References Aebersold, Jamey, editor (1978). Charlie Parker Omnibook. New York: Michael H. Goldsen. Giddins, Gary (1987). Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker. New York: Beech Tree Books, William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-05950-3 Koch, Lawrence (1999). Yardbird Suite: A Compendium of the Music and Life of Charlie Parker. Boston, Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55553-384-1 Parker, Chan (1999). My Life In E-Flat. University Of South Carolina Press. ISBN 1-57003-245-9 Reisner, George (1962). Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker. New York, Bonanza Books. Russell, Ross (1973). Bird Lives! The High Life & Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker. New York: Charterhouse. ISBN 0-306-80679-7 Woideck, Carl (1998). Charlie Parker: His Music and Life. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08555-7 Woideck, Carl, editor (1998). The Charlie Parker Companion: Six Decades of Commentary. New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-02-864714-9 Yamaguchi, Masaya, editor (1955). Yardbird Originals. New York: Charles Colin, reprinted 2005. External links Library resources about Charlie Parker Resources in your library Resources in other libraries By Charlie Parker Resources in your library Resources in other libraries Book icon Book: Charlie Parker Wikiquote has quotations related to: Charlie Parker Media related to Charlie Parker at Wikimedia Commons The Official Site of Charlie "Yardbird" Parker Charlie Parker discography at Discogs Charlie Parker discography Charlie Parker Sessionography Clips and notes about Parker Bird Lives – Thinking About Charlie Parker Category:Charlie Parker Category:1920 births Category:1955 deaths Category:20th-century American musicians Category:20th-century composers Category:African-American atheists Category:African-American composers Category:African-American jazz musicians Category:American atheists Category:American buskers Category:American jazz composers Category:American jazz saxophonists Category:American male composers Category:Bebop saxophonists Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Infectious disease deaths in New York Category:Jazz alto saxophonists Category:Male jazz musicians Category:Musicians from Kansas City, Missouri Category:Musicians from New York City Category:Savoy Records artists